Andy Summers 🤠’s review published on Letterboxd:
The fact that this film was based on actual events is pretty hard to believe. Like everything today you have to wonder how much dramatic licence was given to make the story more commercially viable,how much is true, and how much is just bullshit.
A bank robbery back in 1971 is the cover for a government conspiracy and the recovery of some very embarrassing photographs of a member of the Royal Family. Princess Margaret would be a good guess as the Royal in question for her bohemian attitude and penchant for the West Indies and a little drinkie. Mixing in a few scandals of the day and some characters loosely based around the fringes of the times, it works fairly well until you look closer at the actual events. The robbery and aftermath are apparently covered by a Government D-Notice that prevented media coverage at the time and the historical figures are more like caricatures than the actual people. It does state some facts in the epilogue but even they're not all accurate.
Jason Statham heads up a cast that also includes David Suchet,Keeley Hawes, Saffron Burrows and the criminally underrated Daniel Mays. A tale of cockney thieves, sneaky government officials and corrupt policemen this tries too hard to blow open a big cover-up with speculation and tit-bits of factual information. Don't get me wrong it's a decent little film but it just feels like it's stretching to cover too many strands of a story that nobody really knows the truth about. Statham obviously brought his own clothes to the set as he seems to wear the same kit no matter what the film is. The seventies setting is done well and with enough kipper ties and old fashioned cars, looks pretty authentic. Not the greatest film I've ever seen, but hardly the worst.